


Shapes

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [19]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 01:53:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4460777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf





	Shapes

Half an hour after the lighting of Joe Goodensnake’s funeral pyre, Scully began to feel like they’d overstayed what little welcome they had been granted. She glanced up at Mulder, who was staring at the flames, looking as though his thoughts were a million miles away.

Nudging him as subtly as she could, she murmured, “I think it’s time to go.”

He blinked, and they both turned to look at Sheriff Tskany, who nodded solemnly at them. Mulder pulled his hands from his pockets, placing one hand on the small of Scully’s back, and they made their way quietly to the car.

It was dark as they drove, so much darker than it ever got in DC. There was an entirely different quality to the night, a wildness that made Scully glad they were traveling through it from within the safety of a vehicle. She was immediately a little embarrassed to feel that way, but she supposed there was some validity to the idea of an instinctual wariness of the pitch-dark unknown, some primal human response to not being able to see if there were predators lurking in the shadows.

"I think the sheriff knows more than he's been saying," Mulder said, startling her from her thoughts. "I'd like to try to talk with him again in the morning."

Scully shook her head. "I'm not sure how much more we have to investigate now that our primary piece of evidence is gone," she said over the rumble of tires on dirt. "Even in the wildly unlikely scenario that Goodensnake  _did_  have some sort of transformative ability, there is absolutely no way to prove it."

"But what if he wasn't the only person with this ability? There may be others on the reservation capable of shapeshifting. I think there are, and I think Sheriff Tskany knows about it."

She gaped at him. "Mulder, you can't be serious! There is absolutely nothing to support that theory."

"Nothing except the fact that every time those historical murders stopped, with the death of the alleged perpetrator, there was only a temporary lull before they started up again. All of the evidence, in fact, suggests that the Parkers' cattle problems won't die with Goodensnake. We need to find out who else can do what he could, figure out who's next in line."

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She would have thought by now she could no longer be shocked by Mulder's borderline-insane beliefs and theories, but somehow he managed to keep surprising her.

“What can you possibly think you stand to gain by making those sorts of accusations? You can’t… Mulder, even ignoring the fact that it’s a completely absurd notion, these people are grieving. They’re grieving, and they’re not happy about us being here anyway, and they  _certainly_  won’t be happy about you marching in there accusing them of being shapeshifters!”

In the dashboard lights, she could see him clenching his jaw. “And the alternative is what? We just wait around until it happens again?”

“Yes. We leave it alone.  _If_  there is another attack, there will be new evidence to study. And if there isn’t -- and in all likelihood, there won’t be -- then we won’t have needlessly upset and offended the entire Trego community.”

He sighed. “I hope you’re right.”


End file.
